Thursday, March 16, 2006
Scientists think protein in h5n1 bird flu is key to human to human mutation
A study published in March 16th’s online addition of the Journal Of Science by a research group led by Ian Wilson at the Scripps Research Institute said they have determined the structure of a key protein of the H5 bird flu virus.
The structure of this key protein reveals that certain mutations could ease the deadly virus spread among people.
This protein (hemagglutinin) attaches itself to different cell receptors in avian and human-type flu, which may explain why most bird flu viruses do not spread between humans, according to the researchers.
The three known virus outbreaks 1918( Spanish Flu ), 1957 ( Asian Flu ) and 1968 ( Hong Kong Flu ), were caused after the hemagglutinin(the key protein in question), of these viruses became adapted to the human population.
Although hemagglutinin of the H5 virus looked very similar to the H1N1 virus (Researchers believe this caused the 1918 Spanish flu) , these mutations do not cause the bird flu virus to prefer a human receptor, the researchers found.
However, the researchers noted that some of these mutations may make the H5 bird flu virus hemagglutinin more likely to bind to human lung epithelial cells, providing a possible “foothold” for the virus in the human population.
“Thus, such mutations provide one possible route by which H5 viruses could gain a foothold into the human population,” they said.